One of the most consistent writers of enjoyable D&D adventures is Dan Coleman. Every so often, he runs a Kickstarter for another four or five dungeon adventures, it funds, and he quickly releases them to the world. We’re in that period now: his Kickstarter finished a few weeks ago, and we now have four more adventures available through DriveThruRPG that we can download and play. … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Out for Blood
Although it is perfectly possible to run a published adventure as-written, using the various hooks and plot strands to engage the interest of your players, it is also possible to run something richer. To give the players more engagement with the story than just “a guy in a tavern needs you to do a job”. Yes, this is easier to do when you’re writing the … Continue reading Integrating Characters into Published Adventures
Treasure of the Broken Hoard is the first D&D Adventurers League adventure for season 5: Storm King’s Thunder. As with previous seasons, it’s a collection of five mini-adventures, each able to be run in under an hour, which introduces the players to the theme of the series. It is also, as with the previous four seasons, written by Shawn Merwin, who knows what he is … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Treasure of the Broken Hoard
The Sphere of Sunlight is a short, pay-what-you-want adventure available from the DMs Guild. It clocks in at thirteen pages long, and is designed for 4-6 first-level characters. I can’t shake the feeling that the author doesn’t quite understand what all the words he’s using mean or how to put them together in the correct manner. “Smoke pours windward from the hearths of homes”. “Hammer … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Sphere of Sunlight
As most of you are likely aware, Storm King’s Thunder¸ the latest adventure from Chris Perkins and Wizards of the Coast, is now available in stores. It’s an adventure for 1st-10th level characters which sees them facing off against a lot of giants. It is also, in a lot of ways, the companion to the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. Your players have read that book? … Continue reading Adventure Structure and Design: Storm King’s Thunder
In the earliest days of Dungeons & Dragons, a stream of new and variant classes appeared in the pages of The Strategic Review¸ The Dragon and other fan magazines. One category of class was the NPC Class, a character class designed specifically for use by the DM’s non-player characters. Often, they would have various features that made them inappropriate for use by the players – … Continue reading 5E Supplement Review: Priestess
The Secret of Karnov Mansion is a 3-4 hour adventure for 4th or 5th level characters. In it, the adventurers are invited to a nearby mansion where, they are told, they will be offered a job. Unfortunately for the adventurers, the job turns out to be not so great: they’re the intended prey of the family of weretigers that now inhabit the mansion! The opening … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: The Secret of Karnov Mansion
One of the great tropes in adventure fiction is capturing the protagonist and letting him find a way to escape. Unfortunately, requiring the capture of adventurers is extremely problematic in the middle of a game of Dungeons & Dragons. It is something that needs to be very carefully handled. The problem derives from the nature of D&D. The essence of the game is that you … Continue reading The Trouble with Capturing Adventurers
Karl Resch’s adventure, Fear of the Dark, is set in the time of the Rage of Demons, where madness and fear stalk the Underdark. The plot of the adventure is simple: A Zhentarim caravan has gone missing underground, and the adventurers must find out what has happened to it by exploring an outpost overrun by invaders. For the most part, it’s a standard dungeon crawl, … Continue reading 5E Adventure Review: Fear of the Dark
One of the most important skills in the Dungeon Master’s toolbox is the ability to improvise. And, based on my long experience with the game, it’s a skill that takes time to develop. Like most skills, you get better at improvisation by actually improvising, and paying attention to what your players think of the result. Many of the games I’ve run have been improvised. Even … Continue reading On the Art of Improvisation
